-> there was serveral warnings on both packages "gnome" and "gnome-extras", e.g. "can't resolve yelp-3.22.0p3" was the first one... But so it seems there was just some warnings, but no errors - there are no dependency problems because of that..?? Maybe the source is errorful? -> http://mirror.switch.ch/ftp/pub/OpenBSD/6.2/sparc64/ ???

I'll start by suggesting that the guidance you have been following was not sourced from the OpenBSD Project, as some of it is incorrect.

The "In /etc/rc.conf ..." guidance is incorrect in two ways.

1. Do not edit the /etc/rc.conf file. You must have missed the comments at the top of the file explaining that it should not be edited, and instead, local provisioning should be made in the file /etc/rc.conf.local.

2. The "dbus_daemon" has not existed by that name for more than two years.

Gnome must be started from GDM, not from startx, unless you have special requirements, and it is not recommended as a) you do not have complete Gnome session management, and b) it requires careful, special provisioning.

The guidance you SHOULD follow instead of the guidance you have been using is the gnome package "README", which was installed in /usr/local/share/doc/pkg-readmes when you installed Gnome. A message telling you that documentation was installed there appeared on your console, but you must have missed it.

The yelp application (Gnome's "help" browser) is not available on Sparc64.

Now i removed all user-defined entries from "/etc/rc.conf", and created a new file "/etc/rc.conf.local" with one entry:

Code:

GDM_ENABLE=YES

...then i will not use the "dbus_daemon" entry anymore, and the hostname thing should not be a problem - so i don't use it anymore!

Yes, there was also a problem with the "gnome-session" (and its dependencies "gnome-shell" & "zenity") while installing the gnome-package. so gnome-session was also not installed - similar to the yelp package.

No, don't thank me. jmar83 reminded me that gnome-session is a requirement in order to run Gnome.

While it is possible to build the gnome-session package on the sparc64 architecture, it is not possible to install it. On OpenBSD, build and run dependencies are considered separately.

Gnome is a very complex suite of integrated applications, and unfortunately, not all of those necessary to run Gnome can be built on sparc64. And when there is one missing dependency, it affects everything that is dependent upon it.

Quote:

...then i will not use the "dbus_daemon" entry anymore...

The name was changed to messagebus in 2015. You will see messagebus provisioning mentioned in the Gnome README.

Quote:

- in "/usr/local/share/doc/pkg-readmes" i see some manuals....

Only packages that have OpenBSD-specific documentation will install a README file. The GDM package does not include a README.

Hello LeFrettchen, and thank you very much!! Will try it! Another question: I also have a Blade 2500, and it's really loud. Is OpenBSD able to reduce the fan noises? Debian Linux, the system i used until now, is not. (At least not "by default", maybe with a custom kernel..?)

@jggimi: I understand... if you are able to compile it, that must not mean you are able to run it. (a special thing in c/c++ sources is, e.g., the "endianness", that need to be programmed so it works on both big- and little-endian... many applications on debian linux also have this problem, mostly it results in a "bus error")

[B]if you are able to compile it, that must not mean you are able to run it.

Not in this case. Instead, gnome-session is able to compile, and it would run, but it lacks two dependencies that are required for it to run as intended. Those dependencies, gnome-shell and zenity, cannot be built on sparc64 architectures. And that could be due to build dependencies that gnome-shell or zenity may have on other applications, rather than any problem with gnome-shell or zenity themselves.

Applications are often a complex web of interdependent libraries and supporting applications. When there is a problem with one thread, the entire web can collapse.

Last edited by jggimi; 23rd February 2018 at 04:27 PM.
Reason: clarity

Another DE to consider is MATE which is a re-working of Gnome2; it is much lighter to run than Gnome 3.x. I've run MATE on FreeBSD 11.1, it runs well. MATE is in the OpenBSD repositories. This is just a suggestion.

@hitest: Thank you, now XFCE4 works, but i do not really like it. It looks like a linux desktop 15-20 years ago...

Have you tried OpenBox? It can be be made as pretty as one wants if, but you would need to configure it to your liking. Also, being a window manager, it does not have all the garbage DEs like Gnome and KDE are bloated with.

OpenBSD has more than 50 different window managers available, and apparently, there are some that are available for the sparc64 architecture. My personal favorite, for instance, the i3 window manager, is available for sparc64.

Gnome is not a problem for a Sun Blade 2500 or Ultra45 (both of them have 2x 1.6GHz Sparc CPU) But if it's not available on sparc64 for OpenBSD...

In Debian Wheezy i also used Gnome, it seems it works in a "compatibility mode" (It looks similar to Gnome from Debian Squeeze or Lenny - no special graphic effects. If i install Debian Wheezy & Gnome on a "modern" x86 Laptop, the Desktop looks very different. I think that "compatibility mode" is similar to Gnome2...?)

"Originally Posted by jmar83 View Post
I also have a Blade 2500, and it's really loud.
Agreed."

And im not 100% sure it is possible to reduce the noise by software/os in general. Maybe it is also not possible with solaris. (?) But i know that it is possible on a Blade 2000, which is much more louder than a Blade 2500 Silver.

And i also think the Blade 2500 Silver is more a Server than a workstation. The original SCSI disk are very loud too. (I replaced it by a big IDE disk - no problem to boot with IDE. But debian Wheezy has a strange "race condition" by booting from IDE, sometime it works, sometime not... Best linux for Blade 2500 Silver seems to be Debian Lenny if you need a GUI, otherwise (for server applications) Debian Squeeze. (which i currently use as an ISCSI target for backup purposes - works well ))